Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system management, and more particularly to server information handling system configuration from an end state definition file.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Server information handling systems are often deployed by an enterprise at multiple physical locations to improve reliability by limiting the impact of infrastructure failures at any one physical location. For example, power outages or cut communication cables at one data center location will not prevent other data center locations from supporting network operations. One difficulty with the use of diverse physical locations is that information technology specialists are generally required at each location to maintain the systems. In order to reduce maintenance costs and to coordinate management of deployed server information handling systems, out-of-band communication is typically supported by management subsystems at the deployed server information handling systems. For example, a baseboard management controller (BMC) at each server information handling system provides hooks that allow control of server information handling system components, such as a remote power-up or power-down of an information handling system. Typically, a BMC interfaces with a management network that is configured separately from other network interfaces of the server information handling system. By having such an out-of-band management network, access to physical control of the server information handling system is generally maintained with better security.
One difficulty with remote management of server information handling systems is that management activities through an out-of-band network interface tend to be non-intuitive and slow. As an example, consider the steps associated with remote configuration of a RAID volume through an out-of-band management network interface and the addition of the RAID volume to a boot list. The RAID controllers are enumerated, the physical disks for creating the RAID volume are retrieved, the RAID volume is defined on selected of the physical disks, the RAID volume creation is staged to take place at a re-boot, then the volume creation is initiated followed by a re-boot of the server. When the server re-boots, the BIOS recognizes the new RAID volume as a boot source. The new RAID volume is added to the BIOS boot list and a modification to the BIOS is staged and then executed with a second re-boot of the server. Although creation of a RAID volume as described above provides an example of remote management steps for server management, each server subsystem involved in a management operation typically is configured separately, such as the BIOS, NIC, BMC, RAID, etc. . . . . Out of band configuration of these subsystems generally needs an administrator who understands management operations associated with each, including distinct commands to each subsystem for each configuration step. Missteps by an administrator can lead to difficulties that are often difficult to address through remote management network interfaces.